Dan Linfoot feels he is on the cusp of a breakthrough with the new Honda Fireblade after an impressive final free practice followed by third in qualifying in mixed conditions at Brands Hatch GP.

The Honda Racing rider jumped to second place on the FP3 timesheet with a 1m 25.139s before torrential rain hit Brands Hatch to give a new challenge to qualifying. Despite the drying conditions, Linfoot powered to the front row with third place in qualifying for his best result of the year on the new Fireblade CBR1000RR SP2.

Having spent the whole day at the sharp-end of the timesheet, Linfoot feels a breakthrough with the set-up on the new Firblade to help control the power of the new Fireblade can pay off - inspired by a set-up change run during Suzuka 8 Hours testing - and hopes it provides a turning point to his campaign having struggled to match his team-mate Jason O'Halloran who has scored three rostrums already in 2017.

"We need a genuine result in the dry before I can smile a little bit more as it has been a really difficult start to the season," Linfoot said. "I've had my head down and keep giving the guys information for what I want the bike to feel like and while Jason has been getting a few results, which has been difficult for me to sit back and watch, I've been trying to keep giving them information.

"With the bike at Suzuka testing last week I had a nice feeling with it and tried to give the guys that sort of information this weekend and I think we are getting on top of it more now.

"It is just a bit more of a difficult beast to ride, with a bit more power, a bit more aggression and I seem to upset that a little bit with the way I ride it. Let's see tomorrow but I feel like I made a bit of a breakthrough this morning with something on the bike and how I attacked it as well so let's see how is shakes out tomorrow."

Linfoot currently trails the top six Showdown places by 33 points and is one of only two riders not to reach the podium out of the top 11 riders in the championship in 2017.